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Yacine Adli signing shows Arsenal’s broader transfer strategy

One of Europe’s hottest young talents looks like he is going to make his way to the Emirates Stadium this summer as new manager Unai Emery looks to raid his old club and secure the signature of 17 year old Yacine Adli.

As we move from one era to the next we can’t help but think back to the last time we signed a youngster from PSG. That guy’s name was Nicholas Anelka and while he didn’t stick around for too long, he certainly made an impact. Now the new manager is looking to something similar and we can only hope it is a sign of things to come as he looks to bring the kind of success Wenger had in his early years.

Another reason why this signing is important is the early signs we are seeing in relation to new arrivals aren’t exactly looking towards the future. I can fully understand why we do need some experienced players to come in as a sort of stop-gap solution while we go through the transition era currently, however, the likes of Lichtsteiner, Papastathopoulos and Fellaini aren’t exactly ones for the future. There still needs to be that Arsenal value of developing young talent and Adli certainly fits the bill.

This move is also something that will help prove the doubters of Mislintat wrong. He’s been fantastic so far but that’s mainly because of his Dortmund connections. He needed to prove his worth for spotting talent outside of these deals helped through personal contacts. Adli certainly fits the bill.

The post-Wenger era does need to be a lot different to Wenger, but it is not to say some of his methods of developing raw talent should not be retained. Under the right tactical guidance a mix of youth and experience is exactly what Arsenal needs to succeed in this coming season.

The broader strategy will now be to have experienced players come in for the next few years, all the while the likes of Holding, Mavropanos and Adli develop. This is a fantastic strategy to become competitive again.

Onto the player himself, immensely talented, a tall tricky player who can play all across the midfield. Dare I say it, when he’s on the wing his height and quick feet make him look like a young Cristiano Ronaldo. He is these days used more in a deeper role, given free reign to dribble and pick a pass. He has all the ingredients to be a big name player in the future.

The immense potential is there, and the biggest thing for Emery is where he will be deployed this early in his career, how much first team football he will get, and more than anything he needs to keep him injury free so he can fulfil his potential. Sounds harsh but under Wenger we had more injuries than most of the other big teams. Not just Adli, but reducing our injuries alone, will help us immensely to be successful.

A new era. Youth and experience to secure our future and help us become great again. Get it done Emery.

Just mentioned this in a below comment but
prefer Ramsey leaving over Ozil. I REALLY rate
Doucoure, but Ndombele from Lyon is a few years younger and a few pounds cheaper than the Watford man. Both players are athletic, technically astute and have the ability to break forward in attack with pace and close control
The YouTube highlights of the Lyon lad against
PSG was mouthwatering, something on his best
day RAMSEY doesn’t have the ability to
provide.

Hell Arsenal could afford all three of Doucore,
Ndombele and Torreria if they said goodbye
to Xhaka, El Neny, Ramsey and Welbeck and
would still have money left for Rico and
possibly the Turkish youngster Sonycu.

I just don’t think AFC has the BALLS to play
hard ball with Ramsey. Although I do rate
him as a player, I just can’t see him fitting
into the style of futbol most Arsenal fans
expect from the club. I personally have
never been impressed with his goal tallys
or lung busting runs into the box for a true
B2B midfielder in my humble opinion should
athletically dominate the middle of the pitch,
provide link up play to the attacking players
(not suffocate them) and assist the DM with additional cover for the back four. The Welshman does have assists in his bag but
AFC need a midfielder that excels in all
three areas.

I said this in another thread the other day. All we ever hear about is Ramsey’s goal-scoring ability. We never hear about his ability to control the tempo of a game because he doesn’t have that. We never hear about his ability to track back and help the dm because he doesn’t do that. We never hear about his great dribbling skills because his dribbling is average. His passing and final ball is terrible. Ramsey lacks the basic skills that make any player in his position a Top-Class player. Ramsey also lacks one other thing: consistency. Ramsey has only been consistent for 1 season which was the 13-14 season.

Adam, I think we can get £40m for Ramsey, £25m for Xhaka, £15 for Welbeck and £10 for Elneny. That gives us £90 plus the rumoured £70m already provided. With £160m we can get Doucore. Ndombele, Torreria, 2 CBs and a GK. And we are good to go.

Ain’t you playing FIFA mate ? Transfers in real world do take time. It’s not that easy as in video games. Plus he hasn’t turned 18 yet which doesn’t allow him to transfer abroad. He turns 18 next month. So it might take a while.

Yeah, and we’ve signed three players. I do think Arsenal need to improve the long game though, with talking to players, tapping them up and such over an entire season. But hopefully we were doing that and will start moving onto bigger players from here on. If not then I hope we start looking for next seasons targets while in season.

Young Ronaldo ? I guess it does ring a bell. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain . Guy had one good season and then he just left us for half the wages that we were offering.Just because he was tried of being a mediocre. That shows how delusional our management had been. Really hope unai brings the best out of him and others who had been left behind just because lack of discipline. Exciting times ahead. Fingers crossed. I would be more than happy if we put in a good fight against the top 6 and finish in champions league. Even without a trophy I would be pleased.

One thing I noticed besides his frame is that ball he lofts over the top. We haven’t had anyone good with that stuff in a long while. The strikers we have make that ball a necessity. Only seen short clips so we don’t know the overall picture, similar with Granit, but this one is different because of the interest in him and him being a top pick from a very wealthy clubs academy. Am very happy!!! with this signing, future French nationals is a great way to go for when it works out.

The signing of Yacin Adli is a very good move. Currently, we really need experience in the backline as that’s being done with Litch in already and expecting Soks as well. If the could add Johny Evans, N’zonzi, Fellaini for some of his nuisance value, Doucoure and if we could go all out for Anthony Marshall, Gelson Martins and Ousmane Dembele then we could become the Spartans with potent armoury. However, the likes of Caglar Soyuncu, Matijs De Ligt, Stephan De Vrijt should also be considered as a near future replacements of Kos, Soks and Litch whose time is already at the verge as we will be relieved from the pressure of looking for standings in their stead.

seems like a good signing then. I do hope we go in for a second round of players after World Cup. Seems Sokratis/Lichtsteiner/Aldi will be pre-World Cup, and honestly that’s not near enough to get back into top 4. Need quality starters in midfield. Only June so plenty of time, but we’ve done this dance before as well.

I agree with your sentiments but unfortunately
I just don’t see Arsenal adding any more quality
to the midfield with the exception of maybe
Torreria or Nzonzi @ DM following the WC.

It seems Arsenal and Emery have decided to
reward mediocrity with a ridiculous contract
and build the future of the club around Ramsey.
With the same amount of weekly wages he’s demanding AFC could pay for both
Ndombele (Lyon) and Torreria and dramatically upgrade BOTH the midfield positions.

Out: $60M
Ramsey—$35M
Xhaka—$25M

IN: $50M
Ndombele—$25M
Torreria—$25M

Saving $10M and improving both midfield positions, what is AFC waiting for?

Adam,
Please let me know how you are privy to such intimate contract agreements?
As far as I know, Ramsey hasn’t even signed a new contract yet and how on earth you can say what your suggested players will cost and agreed salaries for them is beyond me!
Perhaps you could enlighten me?
What are Arsenal waiting for? Their new regime to earn THEIR salaries and sign the players the club have identified and need.
In my opinion they are not doing too badly so far!

I agree Ken-it’s still early days and we MUST trust these guys to get it right.The signs are there that they seem to working on targets and they will I’m sure prioritise the CB and CDM positions.Anything else is a bonus but if Wilshere leaves then another CM and/or pacy winger and we won’t be too far off

Offers are apparently on the table for both Wilshere and Ramsey. Wishere can leave on a free at completion of his current contract. Ramsey, with only one year left on his contract, will be sold if he doesn’t sign the contract on offer. Therefore there is plenty going on; Arsenal should be strengthening midfield, particularly a DM or two, given Emery’s preference for 4-1-4-1.

I applaud the signing of SL and soon to be
additions of this young Frenchman and the
Greek God Socratis😁. It seems Emery and
co. are attempting to address areas of concern both on and off the pitch with these players.

The only point I was trying to make is that
IMHO Arsenal could drastically improve the
steel and athleticism of there midfield by
selling both Xhaka/Ramsey and signing Ndombele and Torreria. One doesn’t have to
be an MIT grad to calculate that the transfer
fees spent/weekly compenastion for the new players wouldn’t come close to xceeding the same fees and saved wages if Ramsey and Xhaka were sold.

Happy to join the minority … As previously with the whippet arsenal fans are too easily persuaded that their young talent will eventually deliver greatness even when years of reality suggest otherwise … Ramsey is a decent bench player nothing more or less … Keeping him on as such is fine by me as long as he accepts appropriate wage bill and quality DM is purchased as a starter

Arsenal giving him a bumper raise baised on years of average form and countless
months on the trainers table is absolute
madness and a big mistake by Emery and
co. His current $100K is an accurate
reflection of what his status @ the club
SHOULD BE, a bench player that should feature in domestic cups and rotated in to
spell Ozil when he doesn’t feel like playing. 😁.

Adam,
Not trying to be critical mate,but all your calculations and formulations fail if the following happens…
Ramsey doesn’t sign a new contract.
We spend the transfer kitty in a new goalkeeper..
We could sell the naming rights to our training ground for £500 million and buy Messi and Ronaldo.
Let’s try and be realistic and not quote salaries and transfers just to justify ones point
I have no idea what salary Ramsey will be offered,or histransfer value, just believe he is a top class player for our club, now that’s a point we could discuss using facts and opinions.

Emery is behind the Adli signing, like Mislintat used his knowledge and relationships so to has Emery here. I really like the looks of this lad, very promising and is probably why Wilshere was cut loose. Mislintat, nobody is writing him off, he has been good but I want to see him lean towards future greats rather than rely heavily on his Dortmund connections anymore. Auba and Mkhit are fine and we needed them, we’ll soon find out about Sokratis. But now I want to see why he’s named diamond eye because he has had it easy so far.

Buying or acquiring youngsters from France is what Arsenal have been doing for the past 20 years… Henry, Nasri, Sanogo, just to name a few. However, with a different manager and backroom staff in place and a different player (Adli) being the subject, I support the move if we spend more on quality players ready to compete for trophies now.

This is just like the Wenger era. Why are we signing up kids who we will never hear of. Why isnt the board signing up world class players like the other 5 teams above us are doing in a haste??? manu, city, pool etc.

I hope it’s just the writers who like to whip negativity amongst us that are getting busy but all I’m reading today is we may not sign a gk this window which worries me abd also that we may settle on AMN as our converted dm player. I love the player but let’s not ruin him we need a ready made mf general / warrior
I think we’ll end up signing Nzonzi if Sven let’s Emery have his way.

Let’s be clear this kid is 17 but he’s com3 from a top club and is well known by Emery who is unlikely to put his neck on the block so early unless he thinks he’ll deliver.
Also he had offers from RM and Bayern. It’s upto us now to ensure he maintains his level and lives upto the hype at such a young age.

I am quite happy with the signing of young talents, i hope they are given the opportunity to play in the senior team and are managed properly.

On to other points Ramsay is not my favorite midfielder, but he has done more for arsenal than Ozil who people find countless excuses for, first he did not have the quality forwards to provide ammunition (that does not exist anymore), second he is played on the wings and not the center(if you are a player of quality it does not matter which position you play) and third he has too much of a work load on the wings (name one player in the top six who does not have defensive duties).

Messi the worlds greatest player is constantly seen harassing players trying to win the ball high and even on top 18 yards box trying to make tackles, so what is so special about OZIL.

Ramsay was our top rated midfielder even with the crap he had done throughout the season, i know there are far better midfielders out there and i would gladly see the back of him, but if we are criticising Ramsay criticise OZIL who has not done anything for arsenal of note and stop being HYPOCRITES